In the packaging industry, one of the best known ways of selling solid products in pieces, granules and/or powder is by dividing and packing them into either paper or plastic bags, the latter being more widely used in recent times due to their greater strength, impermeability and optimum airtightness.
Particleized or finely divided products behave in a manner similar to liquids and, due to the flexible nature of the laminar container in which they are packaged, this container changes shape in a variable manner due to the weight and shifting of their contents, thus making it difficult to store, transport or even to handle them in large quantities.
For this reason, it has become necessary to package the bags together, which is usually accomplished by means of boxes, which are used for the delivery of products separated into bags to the wholesale, retail and distribution sectors.
Boxes undoubtedly offer a number of advantages, although since cardboard has a hygroscopic nature, it is often the main factor in the deterioration of merchandise due to its absorption of moisture. This aspect, added to the relatively high cost of cardboard boxes, makes it advisable to substitute other more economical and waterproof materials.
Developing methods and machinery for packing bags containing small particles in such a way that they can be packaged together in plastic wrapping has long been contemplated, but for some time a series of technical difficulties were encountered, which have now been solved, making it possible to package a group of bags together.
The main difficulties have been the irregularity of the contours of the container due to the shifting of the contents, the fragility of the bag walls which render unsafe the use of ad hoc metal machine parts for the purpose of moving them around, and so forth.
The primary solution consists of tubular plastic wrapping that is closed at one end, into which the bags are manually loaded prior to sealing the opposite end to form a package.
This process, besides being slow and expensive, is awkward because of the variations of shape and size taken by the bags when they are filled, so that when they are manually loaded, if the sleeve is tight, the rubbing or folding of the bags produces an irregular stack requiring repacking, whereas if the sleeve is loose, the merchandise does not get properly packed, giving rise to a risk of breakage.
In the snack-packaging industry, in particular, one of the best known ways of selling these products is to separate and bag them, currently in small plastic bags the material of which is usually several layers thick in order to achieve greater strength, impermeability and optimum airtightness.
In addition, it has become necessary to package the snack bags together, generally accomplished by means of boxes, which are used for the delivery of these products to the wholesale, retail and distribution sectors.
Currently, the snack bags are usually placed manually into cardboard boxes when they emerge from the endpoint of the packing machines, permitting the handling of a number of bags together as a unit for their loading, unloading, shipping and transport, while protecting their integrity.
However, this packing into boxes complicates the shipping and handling of the units, since the person responsible for making deliveries to the points of sale must open the boxes in order to deliver fewer units than the boxes contain to fill orders of less than their total number of units or slightly more, which leads to complications in the whole distribution process.
On the other hand, as previously mentioned, although the boxes do offer advantages, their absorption of moisture causes problems during shipment, given the hygroscopic nature of cardboard, which, added to the relatively high cost of cardboard boxes, makes it advisable to substitute other materials that are more economical and waterproof.
Developing methods and mechanisms to prepare bags containing fragile foodstuffs like snacks in such a way that they can be packaged together in plastic wrapping has long been contemplated, but for some time a series of technical difficulties were encountered, which have now been solved, making it possible to package multiple bags together.
These packages of bags or “bundles” can contain a specified number of units, but less than the content of the aforementioned boxes, making the process of distribution and delivery to the different points of sale much simpler and avoiding the handling of individual units when boxes are opened to make deliveries of a small number of units.
The main difficulties have been the irregularity of the contours of the container due to an irregular distribution of their contents, the fragility of the bag walls which render unsafe the use of ad hoc metal machine parts for the purpose of handling them, and so forth. These individual bags normally contain air in their interior, which keeps them slightly inflated as a protection against crushing that would lead to breakage by compression of their contents.
A primary solution consists of tubular plastic wrapping that is closed at one end, into which the bags are manually loaded prior to sealing the opposite end to form a package.
This process, besides being slow and expensive, is awkward because of the variations of shape and size taken by the bags when they are filled, so that when they are manually loaded, if the sleeve is tight, the rubbing or folding of the bags produces an irregular stack requiring repacking, whereas if the sleeve is loose, the merchandise does not get properly packed, giving rise to a risk of breakage.
Patent No. AR 000660 B1 describes a method for packaging bags in a laminar wrapping or thin plastic sheet shaped into the form of a sleeve by a totally automated machine, with a large output and a high level of safety, making possible considerable savings and a high rate of production for these packaging systems.
In addition, there is the special feature that the resulting packaging creates undersides that are more or less flat, making it possible for the package to stand on end, thus facilitating its stacking in warehouses, stores or transport.
However, despite the advantages achieved by this method and machine, there are high-output packaging lines which require even greater response speeds to accomplish the packaging of bags filled with the separated products.
Furthermore, the filling of the sleeve containing the individual packets, once closed, contains a residual empty space, which allows the individual packets to become disarranged during their handling, making the lot problematic to load and unload.
Therefore, the present invention constitutes a solution to these problems that makes possible the packaging into sleeves of individual packets of materials divided into bags, resulting in a greater response speed for high-output lines and in the production of a much more compact package that is easy to load and unload.
For all these reasons, one can imagine the acceptance the invention will have when put into practice, however categorized or used, by virtue of its defining characteristics, it lends itself equally well to application in the packaging of grains, particulate materials such as sugar, corn flour, wheat flour, granular material, gelatins, medicinal herbs, and so forth.
Furthermore, this invention is expected to have an even greater acceptance when used for the packaging of bags containing snack foods, given the fragility and weight of the contents of these individual bags.